


Never Tame the Spirit

by BonestheGeek



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Season 7 Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 18:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11018964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonestheGeek/pseuds/BonestheGeek
Summary: "It won't come to that," her father says, an almost desperate plea to the universe to please not take her.She knows her father better than anyone; ever since her mother disappeared, ever since her grandmothers fell to the darkness, she's been the only thing keeping him from falling apart. She knows this because he only falls apart when he thinks she cannot see.There's no mistaking the wild look in his eye, the way he kisses her forehead as if to make up for the thousand kisses he won't be able to give her when she needs to be strong. For a second they are no longer comrades in arms; they are a desperate father sending his terrified daughter out of danger, and this is when she almost breaks.Or, Lucy has the heart of the truest believer and the determination of a warrior. Reminding her father that he shares both was never actually supposed to be part of the plan, but if he thinks that's going to stop her, the curse has made him a freaking idiot.





	1. Fire Within Me

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently I've joined the ranks of the people writing speculative fiction about season seven. This was never actually part of my plan either, so Lucy's kind of dragging me on this one. Thanks, Luce. 
> 
> The way that adult!Henry sends Lucy away in the flash forward we saw hits me hard every time with the feels, and that inspired some lines, and I thought, "Man, I could write a good one-shot in 2nd person from Lucy's perspective of that scene." Several hours later, I'm not sure where this is going. Thank you, Lucy. 
> 
> I did change one detail obvious in canon, because it didn't really fit with where I saw the story going. Specifically, Lucy's mother disappears before the darkness claims Henry, not after. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time. I also don't own the television show that Lucy's mother is out of (you should be able to guess). I do not make any monetary gain from the writing of this piece, and this is purely for the enjoyment of myself and others. Please don't sue me, it's not worth your time.

The clothes this world favors are weird as all heck. 

Perhaps that shouldn't be the oddest thing Lucy notices. This world is strange beyond belief compared to her own-- modes of transportation that don't require regular breaks for food and rest, people walking with heads down and tapping on small palm-sized devices, cities that are so close together and so unnatural they make her claustrophobic.

But her father, in his nightly story times she'd had since she was too young to listen, had told her about cars and smartphones and skyscrapers. He'd relayed the epic of "How I Nearly Crashed Mom's Bug into Mom's Apple Tree", complete with appropriate hand gestures and imitations of both grandmothers and Mr. Gold, to Lucy and her mother when Lucy had just turned six. 

He had, however, never mentioned the rough texture of these  _jeans_ people from the Land Without Magic liked to wear so much, Lucy laments as she adjusts the bottoms one more time.  

"What are you reading, sweetheart?"

Lucy turns, somewhat startled, and barely suppresses the impulse to hide the storybook on her lap. She is not a simple, naive ten year old-- she never had the chance to be, much to her father's anger. The darkness had seen to that. Lucy had understood what she was promising when she told her father she would defend the item with her life, and she meant every word. 

She knows better than to trust random strangers, too, even if the white haired older man the next seat over is in all likelihood perfectly harmless. She is not in a magic-dense area like Storybrooke was-- rather, some dead zone called "Seattle"-- so while it's not out of the question, this man probably has no reason to think that her world exists outside of stories. That doesn't mean she's going to come right out and say anything damning. 

"Fairytales, sir," she tells him as politely as she dares. She leans her forehead against the cool glass pane, trying to relieve the headache that's settled there. Not only is this world so much, but she's had two flashes of foresight since breakfast, and all she wants at this point is a nap. 

She can't afford one, though. Not until the book is safe. 

The older man leans back in his seat. "Fairytales, huh?" He asks rhetorically. "That sounds lovely. Which one is your favorite?" 

She smiles the smile one does when they know something another doesn't. "The Author and the Queen, sir." 

"The Author and the Queen? I'm afraid I haven't heard of that one."

 _You wouldn't have,_ Lucy thinks. Out loud, she says, "It's a rarer tale. My father used to tell it."

The older man nods and smiles. "It sounds wonderful." After a moment, he adds, "My favorite is Peter Pan. Childhood is so fleeting...."

 _Oh yes,_ she thinks almost viciously.  _The story of the deadbeat father who blamed his son for his stupidity and spent the rest of his immortal life manipulating young boys and hurting everyone he met. How wonderful._

Her face never changes. Out loud, she says, "That's a good one."

 _Please sound ten,_ she thinks to herself.  _Please sound like you have grown up in this land. Please._

"I'm going to visit my grandkids. Where are you going?" He asks. 

She looks away, towards the lights brighter than anything non-magical she's ever seen, so that he won't see the only thing she can't hide. It takes her two tries before she can answer without tears straining her voice. "To see my dad," she says, and it still comes out softer than intended. "I haven't seen him in a while."

She can see his sympathetic nod in the reflection. "Divorce?"

 _Not on your life,_ she thinks. "Something like that," she says instead. 

* * *

 

"It's gotten worse," her father tells her mother in hushed tones. They think she's asleep on the couch. Her father's far more oblivious than he thinks he is. 

She needs to hear this. They won't tell her-- she's seven, she's supposed to be a  _kid,_ playing and laughing and leaving the fighting to the adults, but this is her world too. 

"It devoured Alex and Neal's kingdom to the South," he says, his voice strained. She barely keeps from reacting. "We don't even know where they  _went._ An entire kingdom!"

"Henry," his mother says in that gentle way of hers, trying to calm him. But her voice is strained with worry, too-- and low and tired. There's nothing but the crackling of the fire for several moments. "How are the others taking it?"

"Jacob had to be forcibly restrained," her father says. "Eva broke down, Luke keeps disassociating, and Roland doesn't even know what to think. Gramps and Grandma are trying to be strong and talk about hope again. Mom won't talk to me or Killian." 

"Did we lose anyone else?" Her mother asks. 

"Gretel and all of her soldiers," her father says. "Hansel's out of his mind. He can't even sense her."

"Can he tell if she's dead?" 

Her father sighs, and Lucy hears him fall into a chair. "That's about the only thing he can tell. She's alive. What the hell is this?"

Lucy hears the rustling of fabric as her mother sits down beside him. "You're still feeling Paige."

He sighs. "It  _hurts,_ El." He says. There's tears at the back of his voice, frustration pouring out of his tone. "I know it doesn't make any sense..."

"It does, actually," she says. "It would be more concerning if it didn't. Bonds are...they draw off of one another's magic, meant to be sustained and reinforced by two. This is especially true of an artificial bond, like yours, rather than a natural bond like ours or Hansel and Gretel's. The absence of one tears a hole in the other." 

"Great, just what I always wanted. A hole in my magic. I should've asked Paige to jump into the darkness months ago."

"Did you talk to Regina?" Lucy's mother asks, ignoring the sarcasm. 

Henry sighed. "Yeah. There's not much she can do except restrain the bond and....I didn't understand it, something like a magic band-aid?"

"A  _lahksah,_ yes. For as powerful a magic-user as you, you have a remarkably terrible understanding of magical theory," Lucy's mother points out, a hint of a smile in her voice. 

"Well, there's always you to explain it to me," he says. "Miss Magical Theory Expert,"

Lucy's Mom squeals. "Henry! Stop, that tickles!"

"Never!"

Lucy almost rolls her eyes. Her parents do that sometimes-- go from fighting or being upset over a problem in the kingdom to kissing or playing an impromptu game with Lucy very quickly. Her father says it's' a coping mechanism, something that makes it easier for them to carry the weight of the entire kingdom. He didn't really grow up royal, after all, not the same way her mother did. Of course, her parents are kind of silly when they're alone anyway. 

Someone clears their throat at the door to Lucy's left. Instantly, she hears the couch make strange noises as her parents reorganize themselves into some proper position. "Your Majesties, there's a situation at the border."

Both of Lucy's parents sigh, and are silent for a moment. "Henry, I need to...."

"Go," he says. "We can talk in the morning." 

There's a rustling sound again. " _Te amo_ _,"_  her mother murmurs. 

 _"_ Always and always, sweetheart. See you in a little while." 

Her mother's footsteps grow quieter, clicks on the stone becoming faint, as she follows the advisor out of the room. 

Henry sighs and waits several seconds. Then, he says, "How much of that did you hear?"

Lucy thinks an expletive her father doesn't think she knows. 

She opens her eyes and sits up, studying his pointed look. She sighs. "Everything," she says. "Uncle Neal and Aunt Alex are gone?"

Her father sighs and runs a hand over his face. "Kind of, yes. We're not sure what happened." 

"And Bea?" 

"Nobody got a closer look, at least no one who made it." There are deep shadows under her father's eyes. "But we don't think she made it out, no."

Lucy looks down, digesting this information. "Daddy?"

"Yeah, Bug?" 

"What happens if the darkness comes here?"

"We'll run if we can," her father says instantly. "If not...we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

She considers that. Then she takes a deep breath. "Are we gonna die?"

 _"No,_  Bug, we're not gonna die." Her father says it so forcefully that she has to believe him. He walks over and kneels in front of her, the firelight barely illuminating his face. "You remember how Aunt Paige and I can sometimes tell each other things without being in the same room?"

"Yes." It had been a wonderful game when she had been young. They would be across the castle from one another, and she would run back and forth, each telling her a word she had told the other. She'd been five at the time, delighted by simple things. "Aunt Paige said that you saved her life when she was a little older than Uncle Jacob, and now you can talk to each other in your heads no matter where you are."

"That's right. And that means that I can tell if she's ok or not. And she is. So even if we get taken by the darkness, I know that we're going to be ok. You understand?" 

She nods, and he smiles. "Ok, let's get you to bed. It's past your bedtime."

"But I'm not sleepy!" She yawns, though, ruining this argument. 

Her father rolls his eyes and takes her hand. "Yeah, I'm sure you aren't. Bedtime, Bug. Come on, I'll tell you any story you want."

"The Author and the Queen?" She asks, and stands up. 

He snorts. " _One_ story of the Author and the Queen. Choose wisely."

As they walk, she thinks. "The Chalice?" 

"Sounds good," Henry says, and they continue walking. 

But Lucy still notices how strained her father's face looks even when he smiles, how his hand shakes in hers, and knows that the question of their safety is not nearly as black and white as he claims. 

* * *

She checks everything before she walks towards the apartment building. 

Her necklace is around her neck, and she's assuming it's functional (given the fact that the train and all its' inhabitants are  _not_ in a dimensional rift right now). The book's in her hands. Her backpack, filled with the two changes of clothes, box of something the store called "granola bars", and the case containing her father's sword, is across her shoulders, tightened as tightly as she can manage.  

She takes a breath to try to alleviate the tightness of her lungs. It does nothing but remind her painfully of her mother. 

_A queen must always be composed, mija, even if the news is scary. Always control your fear with your breath-- your fear is the monster, and your breath is the sword._

Lucy swallows.  _Be brave._ She thinks of her father, her mother, her uncles, her aunts, her grandmothers, her step-grandfather, and all of the people who make up the twisted tree she calls family. They're depending on  _her._

She walks up to the apartment, puts on her best innocent face, and presses the buzzer. 

"Yeah?" A voice calls out. Not her father's. She knows better. 

"Um..." She says. "Hi! My name is Lucy. I, uh....my Dad, he lives here? His name is Henry Mills? Can I come in and see him?"

"Didn't know Mills had a kid," the guard mutters, below what he thinks is Lucy's range of hearing. "Why don't you buzz him?"

"I would!" She says, nodding like that suggestion wouldn't possibly end in disaster. "But my Mom and I decided to surprise him. You see, they're divorced," Oh Gods, there's that awful word again. "And we live in Maine. Mom told him that I'm at fencing camp."  _Fencing camp? Seriously?_ "But I'm not, and I came into town just to surprise him for his birthday. But I can't buzz up because I have this cake here and I had this whole thing planned out where he opens his door and sees me carrying this cake and if I buzz up that ruins the surprise, you know?"

It only takes a touch of magic to glamour the book so that it looks like one of the sheet cakes she saw in the grocery store, but pain stabs across her head anyway, and it takes all her willpower not to wince.  _God,_ she needs a nap. This is the second glamour spell she's done today (having done the first in order to get away from the CPS worker at the train station); with that plus the visions, she's standing on sheer force of will. 

"Ok, kid, how about this?" He says. "I'll buzz him to come down for a visitor, and you can do the whole cake thing there?"

It takes everything in her not to scream at him.  _Don't you understand? I need him! He doesn't know! He's gonna call CPS and I'll lose the one chance I have to save my family._ "Can't I just come up?" She asks. "I mean, I'm a kid. Not a murderer."

There's nothing for several seconds. Then the guard sighs, and the door clicks. "Ok. Go ahead."

"Thank you!" she yells and practically runs into the building before the guard can think about what he just did. 

She turns off the glamour charm in the elevator after she plays a little tiny magic trick with the camera system, but by the end of it she's panting, leaning against the elevator wall and trying hard not to throw up. 

_Eight floors to recover, Lucy. Seven, six._

She takes several deep breaths, swallows twice, and manages to stand before the elevator dings and the door opens. 

 _815_ looms ahead of her, almost mocking her as she walks toward it. It feels stupid to be afraid of a door, but, well....

She's not afraid of the door. Archie would tell her that. She's afraid of her father, looking at her and not recognizing her, not calling her Bug or smiling at their inside jokes, of not being a hundred different things that make her father her father. 

She's also a million different other things, and emerging even more strongly than upset is  _pissed off._

_This must be what the Author felt like when he ventured into Issac's world._

The thought is enough to give her the courage to knock on the door. 

The door opens just slightly, enough for her father to pop his head out. She forces herself to remain stationary, not to run toward him and try to hug him. 

His hair isn't quite as long, nor as wild. There's gold binding lines across his wrists, if one looks hard enough. He's wearing the same style of clothing she is, but she's seen the few pictures her family managed to keep when the curse ended when he was eighteen, and that isn't as strange as it should be. What really hits her hard, though, is how his eyes have lost the spark of belief they've had for as long as he can remember. While it helps her to remember that this isn't her father, not really, it hits her right in the gut when he looks straight at her and doesn't smile. "Uh, hello?"

There's no Bug on the end. She steals herself. "Hi. Are you Henry Mills?" She knows this, obviously, but she can't think of a better way to start. 

He nods. "Yeah....yeah," Even his  _voice_ sounds different, devoid of the lighter lilt he uses when talking with her. He sounds like he does when he deals with the members of surrounding nobility who still haven't gotten over themselves. "Who are you?"

 _You're gonna fix this, Lucy._ She tells herself. Determination is better than grief. She's never been good at holding on to the latter for long. "My name's Lucy. I'm your daughter."

She kind of hopes it will trigger something, anything. He looks mildly shocked, so it's not exactly out of the question. But then he says, "I don't have a daughter," and tries to close the door. 

 _No!_ She stops the door with her hand, frustration clear in her voice. "Yeah you do. Now, come on! Your family needs you."

"Kid, you're like, what? Nine?"

"Ten," she mutters, taking another breath to control the fire in her gut. 

"Yeah, ok, ten. Well, ten years ago, I can assure you, I couldn't have had a daughter." He tries to close the door again, but Lucy won't budge. 

"Your middle name is Daniel." She says, hoping that's still true here. "Your favorite fairy tale is Snow White, and you've never been able to figure out why. You prefer your hot chocolate with cinnamon and you hate apple tarts and small spaces. When you're in trouble, you put your hand over a belt loop on your right side, and you're not sure why. And I bet that, for several months now, you've been having dreams about a family of people you've never met."

He's silent for several seconds. Then he pulls her inside and slams the door. 

"Ok,  _how_ did you know all that?"

"Because _I am your daughter_ ," She says. "Why do I need to keep saying that?"

"Because that's impossible," he says. "Kid, I don't  _have_ a daughter."

"How can you know?" She says. "How can you be sure that you just don't remember?"

"You don't forget something like that," he says, and Lucy sees red. 

"I understand that!" she says, and her hand glows before she can stop the magic. 

The world fizzles out for a second, and she stumbles, breathless, into the back of his couch. 

He moves over to her in seconds. "Shit, are you ok?"

She coughs twice and takes in two deep breaths. The problem with using magic here is that there's only so much magic she can tap with the necklace, and it takes forever to get through the tiny link opened between this world and her own. It would be trying even if she were an adult magic user, fully developed and trained. But she's ten, getting by on what little training she has and sheer desperation; worse than that, she's ten with an aspect of her magic she'll never be able to fully control. Grandma Regina would be proud. Grandma Regina would be pissed. "Yeah," she says, trying to stand upright until she stumbles straight into Henry. 

"Easy does it," he says. Then, "What the hell was that?"

She sees an opening. "I'll tell you if you do one thing for me. I need to go home," she says. "I already used all my money for the train here."

"Are you  _kidding_ me?"

"Do I look like it?" She asks. "I know you're curious. It's just a magic trick." It sounds stupid and thin to her, too, but he's not going to accept the truth, and this is technically true. It is a  _magic_ trick. "I'll show you how to do it if you take me home." 

"And why don't I just call CPS right now?" 

"Because I'll tell them you kidnapped me."

"And I'll tell them I had no idea I had a daughter."

"DNA tests don't lie," she says. "And a birth father with his bio daughter in his apartment? Not gonna look good for you. If you take me home-- and I mean _take_ me home, not buy me a train ticket home-- I'll tell you how I did that magic trick and I won't say anything to the police." 

He runs a hand over his face in a move that's so  _Henry_ she almost has an accidental magic burst again. "You think they're actually gonna believe you."

She shrugs. "Do you want to take that chance?"

Finally, he sighs. "Fine. Where's home?"

 _Avalor,_  She thinks.

"Charmingsburg, Washington."

He shakes his head. " _Charmingsburg,"_ he says. "Seriously?"

 


	2. Fire Inside You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Lucy and her father created The Plan, they'd discussed Lucy was supposed to do. Everything that she needed her father's advice on, she needed to ask then, because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to give her help later. They'd agreed on a series of missions based on how Henry believed the curse worked. 
> 
> Mission One: Find Henry. Convince him to go to Storybrooke (or Charmingsburg, in this case) by any means necessary. Blackmail, bribery, and pretty much anything short of knocking Henry out and dragging him to the car were all acceptable. 
> 
> Mission Two: Find Aunt Paige. Henry had reason to suspect she wouldn't be in the cursed town. 
> 
> ....She hadn't expected Mission Two to be that easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....Lucy what on God's green Earth do you have planned, kid? 
> 
> Slight TWs in Scene Four-- Henry speculates both on how Lucy came to be and on Lucy's home life. It implies that he suspects child abuse and suggests that Lucy may have been conceived on a night Henry doesn't remember. Nothing is explicitly stated nor described in great detail, but if you need to skip the scene, please do so. Henry freaks out, thinks about Lucy, Paige wakes up, they talk, then Lucy has a nightmare. It's character development, but not much actually happens. 
> 
> I meant to have this up later. Huh. Probably because I meant to get Charmingsburg in here too, and that didn't happen with how I wanted to end this. 
> 
> Also, if you didn't catch it, Lucy's Mom is Elena of Avalor here. I don't own her either. Do note, Elena of Avalor fans, that her characterization is probably going to be a bit different here than the show, just as OUAT does with most fairytale characters.

"Any means necessary?" Lucy asks, just to be sure she has it right. 

She's nine years old, now; several inches taller and battle hardened. Even now, on a decently quiet day in the company of her father, the book isn't more than a foot to her right and an unsheathed knife lays on top. 

Henry's face has acquired a permanently furrowed brow, his smiles barely reaching his eyes anymore. Life's been hard since they lost her Mom, since Avalor fell, since everything he does became a constant reminder both of his missing wife and what's at stake if they lose. It takes a lot for Lucy to get him to really smile anymore, and she's pretty sure he only does it because he likes to pretend that everything's fine for her. 

"Any means necessary," Henry repeats. "You can threaten to call the cops..."

"They're like Aunt Paige or a knight, right?" Lucy asks. Despite all the stories, she's never lived in this "Land Without Magic", not like he has. 

Henry nods. "Right. You can threaten to call the cops and have me arrested for kidnapping, you can bribe me with money, you can steal something and run out the door so I have to run after you. You can do anything you can think of that gets you to Storybrooke, as long as you  _don't_ knock me unconscious. You're too young to drive."

She writes it down, a list she plans on leaving in the book for when the time comes. She bites her lip. 

Henry touches her hand. "Bug, if I can't remember you? It's not me. Please know that. I would do anything to make you feel special and loved. Curses are hard beasts to conquer, and even the strongest kneel at their mercy. Rumplestiltskin was under a curse for almost my entire childhood."

She nods, still digging her teeth into her lip. He sees her mother in the gesture, and her heart clenches. "I know," she says. "Ok, mission one: find you. Mission two?"

"Aunt Paige," when she looks up questioningly, he shakes his head. "I don't think she's gonna be in Storybrooke. Call it a hunch. Feel free to disregard that one if you find her in town."

"Why?" She asks, even though she writes it down. 

It takes Henry several seconds to answer. He's never been an expert at magical theory-- that was Elena and his Mom, and sometimes Paige if it had anything to do with healing. He's a decent caster, he has some of the strongest mental shields on this side of the realm, and he knows just enough to teach his nine-year-old how not to die from magical exhaustion. Everything else is just not his strength. The Author is a  _historian_ for goodness sake, not a real mage. 

"Do you remember how Aunt Paige fell to the darkness?" He asks, because she may not-- she'd only been six at the time. 

But she nods. "She was ferrying a friend back to Wonderland, and she landed in the wrong place."

"Right." Clever girl. "I felt the power burst before....." Before he'd collapsed in the middle of a meeting with the Cleonian ambassador and had a massive seizure, but he isn't about to go there. "Before she disappeared. So we think she may have been using her power when she was pulled through."

Lucy gasps. "And you think she fought and had a controlled descent!"

"....Yeah," Henry says as she writes  _that_ down, probably for a potential argument with cursed him-- and isn't  _that_ weird to think about.  _Gods, she takes after Elena,_ he thinks. "Something like that." 

"Do you know where she might have gone?" She asks. 

There he shrugs. "She's never been outside Storybrooke," he says. "Maybe I'm wrong and she chose to go there. But my best guess is a big city, somewhere close to the curse, a hospital, and a lot of park land. Maybe near a library, too. Just keep your eyes open. I'd guess her name would be Paige Grace, but maybe the curse chose something different. Remember, this thing  _wants_ to be broken, so fate will help you break it if you listen."

She nods, and he wishes he had a better answer than  _I haven't a clue_ and  _you have to trust fate._ He loves his grandparents, but their sayings do exactly jack shit for his anxiety now that his daughter is going to take his place in _The Dark Curse Part Two_ _: Just Add a Complete Psychopath._

"Ok," she says. There's determination in her eyes, and now she looks just as much like Emma as she does his missing wife. "Mission Three?"

* * *

 

"Can I bring someone to drive with me?" Henry asks as she gets into the car. 

 _Oh, Great Goddess above, no._ Lucy thinks. She can just imagine what would happen if he brought some poor, unsuspecting, magic-less soul into a town that literally existed because of  _magic._ Probably a mental breakdown or five directly proceeded by having their heart ripped out through some unforeseen circumstance. "Um...." she says, trying to think of something. 

Henry holds up a hand. "Look, kid." Oh, Gods, she hates that nickname. It's BUG, as in LADYBUG. "You're insisting on starting immediately, to get to a town that's at least twelve hours away. I'm bringing someone to drive, or we're not driving there at all."

...Ok, fine. Maybe in this case, "any means necessary" means "abandoning said poor magic-less soul outside of Storybrooke, stealing their phone, and texting Henry a phony excuse. 

Ten minutes later, after a quick text from Henry and a few platitudes ("You'll like her, she likes kids,"), they end up outside a blue apartment building near a pristine and beautiful lake. A girl with a blonde braid in rumpled pajamas steps in the car, shoots Henry a dirty look, and says, "You owe me the largest coffee you can find and pick for the next five movie nights." 

This is how Lucy finds her Aunt Paige. 

* * *

 

Aunt Paige isn't that different here. For one thing, she's not a night owl. She's an early riser, which means after meeting Lucy and expressing the necessary surprise ("She's your  _what now?"_ ) she's out cold in twenty minutes flat. 

Lucy is trying to keep from joining her. She really is. Even in Henry's car, with her knife strapped to her calf and her father's sword in her backpack, she's having a hard time trusting that the book will be fine when she wakes up. It's stress, she supposes. She's pretty sure her father had started sleeping once every two days as the darkness approached. 

She catches Henry looking at her in the rearview mirror, and looks away, unable to meet his eyes. "I look like my Mom," she offers, because he's thinking so loud it's impossible not to read it on his face. 

His eyebrows raise, but he turns his attention back to the road. It's pitch black-- she did only manage to arrive after midnight, after all. "How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," she tells him. At least it's honest. 

They're silent a while, and Lucy is reciting the steps of Operation Steed in her head when her father clears his throat. "Who is your Mom?" He asks. "Do you know?"

...Had she been cursed, she would say no. But she is not cursed. "Her name's Elena," Lucy says. "Elena Castillo Flores." 

Here she hasn't been able to find her mother, and the thought that something  _happened_ terrifies the shit out of her. 

Henry doesn't recognize the name. She had hoped he would-- True Love should break any curse-- but only the name of the wife he doesn't know he's mourned for two years isn't gonna do the trick. Lucy sees the look on Henry's face, and knows what he's about to say before he asks. "How do you know I'm your father?"

She doesn't want to lie. She's supposed to, she knows, because cursed people are stubborn as hell and about as likely to believe the truth as Emma is likely to believe that aliens from Mars are approaching the Enchanted Forest. Corn fields fly past her vision. "It's a really long story."

"Well, we've got a really long time," he points out, sounding so much like  _Father_ when he wants her to tell her something that Lucy has to swallow twice before she can answer. 

"Look, you're not gonna believe me." She says, and before he can respond to that, she continues. "But I'm telling the truth. You can order a DNA test when we get to Charmingsburg, if you want."

He doesn't say anything, and they fall into silence. The car's repetitive noise, despite being something she's never been exposed to before, starts to sound like a lullaby, and she has to forcibly open her eyes when they close. 

"You can sleep here, you know," Henry says quietly. "I'm not gonna like....leave you on the side of the road, or something."

She chuckles, but there's no humor in it. There hasn't been in a really long time. "That's not why I can't sleep." 

More silence. This is getting even more awkward. 

She has to say something. Her head's pounding, her magic so overused that her arms burn. She needs rest or she won't be able to walk. So fine, she caves. "Can you promise me something? It's gonna sound really stupid."

A pause. "Ok?"

"Can you make sure that no one messes with the book?" 

"The book?" She can hear the skepticism dripping from his voice. 

She almost groans. "My storybook. The one I've been carrying since I found you." Silence. "It's really important. To me." She adds the 'to me', even though it's just on the edge of a lie, but she's sure he'll accept a stupid child's wish more than 'the fate of the world rests on this book'. 

He sighs. They make a turn onto a different highway. "Yeah, sure kid," he says. "Paige and I will keep an eye on it, ok?"

She doesn't have a choice but to trust him. Her eyes are drifting closed. "Ok," she says. 

She's asleep in minutes. 

* * *

 

Henry's relatively proud that it takes five hours for the panic to set in. 

 _What the fuck?_ He thinks to himself with his knuckles white on the steering wheel.  _How the fuck did this happen?_

He doesn't even remember  _sleeping_ with anyone when he was 23 - and that's how old he would have had to be to be a father of a ten-year-old now. He remembers pulling a shit ton of all-nighters and drinking a lot of red bull. He remembers a college friend, one that didn't last, having to restrain him from beating up Paige's jackass of an ex. He feels like sex, or at least the suspicion he had sex, is something he should remember. 

Maybe one of those parties got wilder than he thinks? 

_But how would she know so much about me from a one-night stand?_

If she were Paige's kid, it would be a different story. But Paige is definitely childless, disregarding the fact that Paige and him have never had sex (and have never even dated after a disastrous month his freshman year). He can't think of any other girl he's been close to, though, and he definitely doesn't remember an Elena Flores. 

He steals a look at his daughter, now asleep, through the rear view mirror. He hadn't realized how much tension she held in her posture until she had to relax, and it's only now that he realizes how exhausted she looked when she showed up at his door, even before the dizzy spells. How long had she been awake? 

 _Can you make sure that no one messes with the book?_ Jesus Christ, what did she think was gonna happen? That he or Paige was going to touch the thing? Throw it out the window and rip pages out of it? How can someone even think that? 

A pit grows in his stomach. He can think of a few circumstances, none of them good, especially considering that she flinches at every sudden movement or noise. He doesn't think she knows he noticed. For the first time since this whole craziness started, he wonders if he  _wants_ to hand this kid back to her mother at the end of this adventure.  

Except that freaks him out even more, because he's  _not_ father material. His own father died before he can remember, and was a deadbeat anyway. His step father's a self-obsessed jackass he doesn't stay in contact with. And, really, this could be nothing-- maybe she's just anxious, or she has particularly sneaky siblings. Who fucking knows? 

Paige wakes up around five a.m., blinking at the sunrise. "We remember that coffee?" She asks, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. 

Henry makes a mental note to start checking road signs, then glances in the rearview mirror. "Keep it down," he says quietly. "She wouldn't sleep until 1:30." 

"1:30?  _Christ,"_ Paige murmurs, but she lowers her voice. She pauses. "I cannot believe you have a kid."

He turns on the turn signal. "Having a little trouble believing it myself," he admits. 

"Did she say who her Mom was?" Paige asks. 

"Elena Flores. I don't recognize the name." If anyone would have a better idea, it would be Paige. "Do you?"

"God, I don't think that's even one of the girls you took out on one date." She frowns. "You never dated in college. Never partied. You don't have any idea how this happened at all?"

"None," he says. "But she swears she'd pass a DNA test; she practically dared me to take one. And she knew all these facts about me. How I take my hot chocolate. My claustrophobia. The kind of stuff that isn't in public records." he pauses. "She knew about the dreams, too."

Paige gasps. "How?" 

"I have no idea. I've only told  _you_ that. In person. In public." 

Paige is silent for several moments, considering. "Honestly? You could have been bugged, but that's really far to go for a prank like this. It's not like you're made of money or something."

Certainly not; he barely makes enough from freelancing to afford rent, food, and the student loans that weren't covered by his admittedly enormous scholarship. But then how on Earth would Lucy know? Has she been watching him? That seems the most likely explanation, and the kid's certainly got the sneakiness for it from what little he's seen, but somehow that doesn't explain everything. 

Whatever, he's still gotta deal with this now. 

"What's she like?" Paige suddenly asks.

Um...Henry's had two conversations with the kid. He thinks back on them and rolls his shoulders. "Kinda devious. She tried to trick me into bringing her." He's pretty sure he could have sorted this out with the police, but he isn't about to leave a poor, fainting kid on her own, regardless of what she says. That just doesn't sit right with him. Besides... "I think she's hiding something. Something doesn't add up."

"Like what?"

"She flinches at sudden movement or noise. Every time she goes into a room she glances around, like she's checking for danger. That's not normal. She's way too protective of that storybook, too, she almost wouldn't go to sleep until I told her I'd keep an eye on it. And she's really evasive when answering questions. Plus, when she thinks you're not looking at her, she'll....peel off a mask." 

"A mask?"

Henry nods. "Yeah. When she knows you're looking at her, she looks pretty normal. But when she looks out the window....she's exhausted, Paige. And scared. I don't know what in Charmingsburg is making her look like that, but if she's really my kid...." 

"You owe it to her to find out," Paige finishes. "Right?" 

He flashes her a smile. "You mind if this becomes a longer trip?" 

She sighs. "No. I'll just call the hospital and say family emergency. It's close enough."  

They sit in silence for a second, neither wanting to make too much noise for fear of waking the kid in the backseat. Then, Henry takes a breath.

"She doesn't really look like me," he says. 

Paige glances at the mirror, taking in the sleeping child behind her. "She kinda does, actually," she says. "I mean, clearly she has to take after her Mom a lot or something. But I can see you in there." 

Henry grips the steering wheel even tighter. "That's comforting."

"Just telling the truth."

"I have a  _kid."_

"Clearly."

Henry's starting to hyperventilate. "A kid! Not even a baby kid, a huge kid right in front of me." 

"Henry!" Paige says sharply. "Calm down, you're gonna wake her up." Then she takes a breath. "Look, I know you think you'd be a terrible father because Liam's a jackass. I get it. Really. But can I point out your stepfather would have slammed a door in the poor kid's face and not given a shit how she got home, much less what happened to her after?"

He knows she's right. 

"I can't imagine what this is like for you," Paige says. "But I've always thought you'd be a great father." 

Henry snorts. "Yeah, you and no one else." 

When he looks out of the corner of his eye, Paige has leaned up against the back of her chair, rolling her eyes. "Take it or leave it, but I am the person who knows you best." 

He has nothing to say to that, because any rebuttal of that argument would be bull, and they both know it. Instead, he drives into a coffee shop, buys them both the largest coffees they offer (as promised) and continues on the road. Briefly, he almost turns on NPR, but he's worried about waking Lucy (he hasn't the foggiest if she's a light or heavy sleeper, but given her reactions, he'd assume the former), so he doesn't so much as twitch. Paige reads the book she brought along, the only sound from the front seat coming when she turns the page. It's as peaceful as a last minute road trip to the middle of nowhere with the daughter he didn't know he had is gonna be. 

Lucy stirs in the back, and Henry almost says something (what, "good morning"? What did you say to a long lost kid?), when he noticed that her eyes were tightly shut and her breathing was uneven. "No! I'll stay, I'll help you fight!" 

What? What on Earth is she....

"Of course! It never leaves my side....I'll guard it with my life." 

He shares a look with Paige out of the corner of his eye. What is she dreaming about? 

"Daddy!" She suddenly cries, with the most heart-wrenching voice he's ever heard in his life. She sounds  _completely fucking terrified_ and that's when Paige springs into action.

"Lucy," she says, reaching back. "Lucy, sweetheart, it's Paige. Remember? I need you to wake up, ok? You're having a nightmare, but you're safe. You're in the car with us." Paige pulls her arm back, hissing. "What the fuck? She's  _hot."_

"What?" 

"Hot as in  _burning."_

"How the hell would she be...." 

"You're saying that like I have any id...." 

"Daddy!" Lucy screams. "Daddy, no!" 

Oh _shit._

"Lucy, wake up!" Henry orders. "I'm right here!" 

Then she bolts upright, heaving breath upon breath and sobbing, murmuring incoherently. Something about "Daddy" and "curse" and "darkness" and a million other things he can't catch.

Paige comes to the rescue again, rubbing the sobbing Lucy's back. "It's ok,  _it's ok_. Whatever you were dreaming, it was just a dream, ok? You're safe." 

When Lucy's a little calmer after several awful minutes, Henry swallows. "Do I need to pull over?" 

Paige looks to the little girl in his backseat. "Luce?"  

The girl in question is looking to the window, again, refusing to look directly at either of them and swallowing back sobs.  _There's that mask again,_ Henry thinks. "No," she says. "I'm ok." 

"Do you remember what it was about?" Paige asks before she thinks, always. Sometimes it's good, because it actually gets people to talk, but a person like Paige, a relative open-book, had needed a lot of time to understand Henry, who tends to keep his thoughts under lock and key. He might be mistaken, he'd only known her seven hours and for a good five and a half of them she'd been asleep, but Lucy seems to be the same way. Paige winces, like this just occurred to her. "I mean," she says. "Sometimes it helps me. To talk about it. That seemed pretty awful." 

"It was nothing," Lucy says, far too quickly.  _Lie,_ Henry thinks. "I don't remember." Another lie. 

Now he's starting to see himself in this kid. 

Lucy blinks and stretches. He doesn't think she realizes he's looking when she suddenly looks down in a panic to see the Storybook there, untouched, and feels for something on her calf. "What time is it?" 

Henry glances down. "7:08." Is he supposed to offer to buy breakfast? Does she eat breakfast? What does one give a ten year old for breakfast? He normally drinks a double-shot expresso and nothing else, and somehow he has the feeling that's not an option. 

"Henry," Paige says, place a hand on his like she knows what he's thinking. "Why don't we stop at an IHOP or something, and you and I can switch?" 

IHOP. Yeah. He can do that. 

Maybe. 

* * *

When they're waiting for Lucy to get out of the bathroom, Paige corners him. 

"You said 'I'm right here'," She points out, crossing her arms and leaning against the paneling. 

He doesn't know what she means, at first. "What?" 

"Lucy. When she had that nightmare, she was calling for 'Daddy'. And you said 'I'm right here'." Paige tilts her head to the side, studying him. 

"What? No, I...." ....oh. "Yes I did," he finishes awkwardly, the _weight_ of it suddenly sinking in. 

It had been in the heat of the moment, when Henry was scared for his....his..... _Lucy,_ wanting her out, needing her to be ok. It had been second nature, a reflex, something he didn't think through before saying. 

Paige touches his shoulder and squeezes. "For what it's worth? You're doing fine. Don't panic." 

"Panic" is pretty much all he's doing. He responded when she called him  _Daddy._

_Oh Goddess above, I'm so screwed._

_Wait._

_Goddess above?_

_What?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we see Henry's still our Henry, noble to a fault :) That's my favorite thing about his character actually. He may be a cynic, but he's a really empathic cynic. 
> 
> In case anyone's curious about the "Paige" thing, she's Paige as in Grace/Paige, the Mad Hatter's daughter. I always wanted more out of that character and developed a good fifty million headcanons for her. In most of my stories, she and Henry are paired together-- obviously not the case here. In the others she and Henry are determined to have the biggest bromance known to man. Trust me, I have tried. She wants in on this one. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I'll answer if I know it won't get answered later. 
> 
> You all should leave a comment and tell me what you think! Come on guys, make my day!


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